Questioning

Teachers ask questions all the time. It is one of the most important teaching methods in education. Some questions are designed to help learners reflect and think for themselves. Others can be to check learning. Some are both.

Learners also need to be encouraged to ask questions of you and each other, to fill in gaps in their own understanding.

Two major types of questions are 'Closed questions' and 'Open questions'.

Closed questions

Closed questions are those where there is one, or a limited set, of answers. They can be right or wrong.

For example:

Q. What is the capital of France?

A. Paris

Q. How do you make the past preterite tense of venir in Spanish?

A. Vine, viniste, vino etc.

Q What is this bone called?

A. Tibia

Q What colour is complementary to red?

A Green

Closed questions are useful to check factual or rote learning. They are particularly useful at beginner levels of a subject or a topic - but they can also be used to check basic and factual information at any level. They lend themselves well to quizzes.

Geoff Petty describes these as ‘mastery’ questions. Because they can be right or wrong, they are easy to check and getting them right builds learners’ confidence.

Open questions

Open questions are those where there are a range of possible answers and insights. It’s hard to say they are clearly right or wrong. They demand a deeper level of thinking

For example:

‘What treatment plan would be best for this client and why?’

‘How do you know what this character is feeling?’

‘Is painting dead?’ Why/Why not?

Open questions are useful at any level, but should form most of the questioning once students have established the basics. They push learners to draw on their experience, to evaluate, to compare and to critique. They foster a deeper level of learning in the subject.

Task: Types of question

Choose a learning outcome for your course. Consider one closed (mastery) question and one open (developmental) question you could use in your class

Check your answer:

Is it straightforward to judge whether the answer to the question is right or wrong? - then its a closed question
Are lots of answers possible, and its hard to say whether any one is absolutely right or wrong? - then its likely an open question.

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